The present invention relates generally to computing networks, and relates more particularly to computing networks using a transmission or transport layer protocol, e.g., Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). In one embodiment, the invention is a method and apparatus for transparent TCP negotiations.
There is a growing demand to decrease latency and increase bandwidth over computer networks, particularly as increasing numbers of servers are deployed in the networks. One method of achieving these goals is to allow a server to redirect a client request to another server in the network. For networks that use the TCP/IP protocol, such as the internet, redirection can be done at the application layer as it is commonly done in web servers, or it may be achieved through other means, such as network load balancers or dynamic domain name systems (DDNS). However, these means are not without their own drawbacks.
For example, while load balancers can redirect client requests to a back end server within a set of servers, such methods typically require a dedicated load balancing mechanism, which can become a bottleneck for the network. In the case of DDNS, an added burden is placed on a standard DNS server to return one IP address from a given set of IP addresses, wherein the returned address may be selected on a basis that is random, round robin, or based on some other external event (e.g., DNS updates from an external source). The distribution of addresses returned to clients is difficult to optimize, which may result in particular servers being over- or under-loaded. In addition, it is impossible for the DDNS server to be aware of what the current states are for the various servers without some external feedback mechanism.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus for transparent negotiations for a transmission or transport layer protocol, e.g., TCP.